EDUCATION FOR LE$$: New program at DCCC helps high school students get college credit

By
Tim Logue, Delaware County Daily Times

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Chris Rombach had a couple butterflies when he sat down for his first class at Delaware County Community College.

“Even though I had gone to the orientation with 150 other kids, it was weird walking into a college classroom,” he said. “No one knew I was in high school, not even the teacher.”

A senior at Ridley High School, Rombach is one of 266 high school students from Delaware and Chester counties attending classes this fall at Delaware County Community College.

The arrangement is not new - high school students have been taking classes at DCCC since the school’s founding in 1967 - but college President Jerry Parker is hoping to attract and hold onto more of them with a pilot program that slashes tuition by as much as 72 percent.

“It’s a marketing effort on our part for sure,” Parker said of the High School Dual Enrollment Pilot Program. “We are giving up 65 to 70 percent of the cost in hopes that students will stay with us in greater numbers than they would have otherwise and pay us back. We don’t think it’s much of a gamble.”

Designed for juniors and seniors in good academic standing, the initiative allows students to earn as many as 21 college credits before they graduate from high school. During that time, DCCC staffers will highlight the advantages of returning after graduation to earn an associate degree and explain the many transfer and guaranteed admission agreements Delaware County has with four-year schools in the Philadelphia area.

“I am going back in the spring and hope to take two courses next summer,” said Rombach, who plans to earn an associate degree at DCCC and then transfer to a four-year college to study engineering. “It’s a big advantage to have a half a year’s worth of classes done before you head off to college. For $120 a class, you can’t beat it.”

Parker said DCCC used to attract between 400 to 500 kids a year when districts had state money available to subsidize dual enrollment students “That money has dried up over the years and so has the number of students who have come to us,” he said.

Students from DCCC-sponsoring school districts pay just $40 per credit, rather than the regular $146, during the pilot program. Those from non-sponsoring districts - Chichester, Marple Newtown and Penn Delco are the only three Delaware County - pay $80 per credit rather than the usual $254. Fees have been waived for all students in the program.

“We have been offering dual enrollment for six or seven years and the kids who have gone through the program really enjoyed it,” said Ridley High School guidance counselor Kelli DiDonato. “It opened their eyes to the whole college experience. We have about 20 kids enrolled currently and another 15 or so for the spring.”

(Dual enrollment application deadlines are Dec. 1 for the spring semester, May 1 for the first summer session and June 1 for the second summer session.)

Every district has different parameters for dual enrollment. At Ridley, the program is only open to seniors, who are limited to one class in the fall to make sure they can handle the workload.

Districts must also determine whether credits earned at DCCC will count at the high school level and, if so, what impact that will have on their union workers.

“There is an overlay of that, whether these courses take students away from regular and AP classes,” Parker said, adding that DCCC is trying to find a work around in districts that do not currently participate in dual enrollment.

DiDonato said Ridley students take classes at DCCC for a few different reasons.

“I think some kids just want to see what it’s like to be on a college campus and be treated like other college students,” she said. “It requires a certain maturity level to get themselves to class on time everyday and do the work without mom and dad checking up on them. They have to grow up a little bit.”

Upper Darby High School Principal Ed Roth said guidance counselors take the lead role in determining which kids would be a good fit for dual enrollment.

“We have about 29 or 30 students in the program right now, including a few juniors,” he said. “They are all high-achieving kids looking to get a head start on college and a taste of the college experience but not all of them are National Honor Society and (advanced placement) students.”

Dual enrollment would seem to be a natural fit for Upper Darby, where 37 percent of the last graduating class went on to two-year colleges.

“I’d say a lot of the interest is student generated,” Roth said. “We promote it in the same way we promote students going to a technical high school. It is a different pathway for students to achieve their goals. Given the price and how difficult money is to come by these days, it’s a tough opportunity to pass up.”

Dual enrollment students are given a college ID and have full run of the DCCC campus, including access to library and computer labs, cafeteria and coffee bar, and the fitness center and student lounges. They can also participate in extracurricular activities

Cheryl Rombach said her son began eyeing up the dual enrollment program in eighth grade.

“Christopher wanted to be completely done at Ridley by his senior year,” she said. “He’s not the kind of kid who enjoys being in a building from 8 to 2:30 everyday. He loves the flexibility he has now and really seems to enjoy going to Delaware County. They treat him like a freshman in college instead of a senior in high school and he doesn’t need me to push him out the door.”

This semester, Chris is spending no time at the high school.

He goes to the DCCC campus in Marple for his introductory English class on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, takes a criminal justice class online, and works for his father Wayne’s business, Master Finish Drywall, whenever he can.

“He goes to work whenever he can fit it in,” said Cheryl, a longtime special education aide in the Ridley School District. “His grandparents started a college fund when he was little but he is going to be covering most of it himself. The recession hit hard and his father and I are struggling, Owning your own business is difficult and my hours have been cut due tp (school district) budgeting.”

Whether they arrive in high school, after graduation or further down the road, Parker said students are often surprised by the quality of the programs and instruction at DCCC’s nine locations in Delaware and Chester counties.

“There is an awakening, especially with the students who have experience at a four-year school,” he said. “They tell us our classes are just as rigorous, if not more so.”

Cheryl Rombach said her daughter Kathryn, a junior at Ridley High, is hoping to follow her brother’s lead.